Effects of the Google 'Exact Match Domain' Update – 10th October 2012 The latest Google algorithm update reduced the importance of exact match domains in search rankings. This update means that competitive generic terms for which brands with exact match domains previously ranked highly may now be more fairly assessed, and thus more accessible to competitors. This change is likely to be favourable to large multinational businesses, with exact match domains largely being held by independent operators. The sectors most likely to be affected are retail, travel, gambling and finance verticals. This will primarily affect SEO rankings however, it may be possible that it has an effect on PPC quality score and therefore it is worth bearing in mind should generic positions improve. – Chris Richardson More Details: http://searchengineland.com/google-panda-the-emd-updatemultinational-businesses-135712
Page Layout Algorithm Update – 10th October 2012 The head of Google’s web spam team Matt Cutts announced a latest algorithm update on 9th October, affecting those sites which are "top heavy" with ads. Apparently users don't want to arrive at a page only to scroll down past ads to get to the content they were looking for. Matt Cutts: "We’ve heard complaints from users that if they click on a result and it’s difficult to find the actual content, they aren’t happy with the experience. Rather than scrolling down the page past a slew of ads, users want to see content right away. So sites that don’t have much content “above-the-fold” can be affected by this change. If you click on a website and the part of the website you see first either doesn’t have a lot of visible content above-the-fold or dedicates a large
fraction of the site’s initial screen real estate to ads, that’s not a very good user experience. Such sites may not rank as highly going forward." – Robert Ashby More Details: http://searchengineland.com/google-page-layout-algorithm-update-135847
Death of SEO? – Accurate like doomsday predictions! – 9th October 2012 Last week, Search Engine Land published an article about failed predictions around the death of SEO. This covered an Infographic (originally published by SEO Book), which looks at different stereotypes declaring the end of SEO for various reasons; journalists not wanting to loose editorial control in favour of making content SEO friendly or AdWords gurus expecting organic results to be replaced by paid ads. One of the key takeout’s highlighted of why SEO will be with us for a foreseeable future is that if people realise that they were only served nothing but paid advertisement on search engines, then they would source their information elsewhere. Further to this, several studies have shown that if SEO is done correctly, it can be one of the most cost efficient online channels. Ultimately, any well structured search campaign should have an element of both PPC and SEO to ensure all bases are covered and that budgets are best utilised. – Marcus Rohrt More Details: http://searchengineland.com/infographic-the-death-of-seo-135068 http://www.seobook.com/learn-seo/infographics/death-of-seo.php
InVideo Programming in YouTube – 9th October 2012 YouTube has added a new feature called InVideo Programming to promote your channel or a specific video across all of the videos on your channel. This new feature can potentially help you to get extra subscribers and viewers at no extra cost.
You have two options in InVideo Programming: 1) "Feature your channel" enables you to show your channel logo where you want in any selected display time. 2) "Feature a video" can let you select where to place the thumbnail of the chosen video at your selected display time, although it is not possible to show the thumbnail during the whole video. Both options however can be disabled, with the first option useful for branding and getting subscribers, while the second option may be useful for promoting a recently added video. –
Blair Liu
More details: http://www.stateofsearch.com/youtube-invideo-programming-to-promoteyour-ownchannel/ http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer= 2790636
Google Tag Manager Arrives – 8th October 2012
Some interesting responses to the newly launched Google Tag Manager, announced just last week to rival companies such as Tagman and BrightTag in the tag management world. See what industry experts think of this new Google release in the article over at Econsultancy. – Kevin Ting More Details: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/10815-will-google-tag-manager-shakeup-the-industry
Marketers Wanting Clearer Attribution Models – 8th October 2012
SEM has continued to drive an increase in advertising spend YoY, as reported by SEMPO’s State of Search Study and this trend is set to continue into 2013. That being said, the study’s findings highlight the increasing importance, to marketers, of newer channels such as Mobile and Social and how these along with Search and SEO (relative old timers) can be utilised together for a more holistic user experience. Marketers would like to see better attribution of these channels and where users are switching from one to the other to the final goal, whether that be a sale, redeeming a promotion code or any other type of conversion. As growth is projected to hit 19% this year and 17% the next, with particularly strong mobile search performance, attributing the value of search on companies’ revenue is the primary interest to marketers. Many models of attribution proliferate, without any one being wholly conclusive although the
last click approach was/is often considered the benchmark, primarily due to the straight forward reporting of this if nothing else. On the flipside, this model can be viewed as the antithesis of attribution as a user is highly likely to have reached their destination in all manner of ways. There is no doubt this will remain a bone of contention for advertisers and agencies, but the continually increasing adoption of technologies and hiring of talent that can address this core concern is likely to provide clearer solutions and expand marketers’ understanding of their audience. –
Jafar Mahir
More Details: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/10647-sempo-study-sem-roars-along-butmarketers-want-more http://econsultancy.com/uk/reports/sempo-state-of-search
Visual Search: Nokia City Lens – 4th October 2012 Nokia's hotly anticipated Lumia 920 goes on sale later this month, and one of its prime and most hyped features is Nokia City Lens, which uses augmented reality/a photo app to search and display info about a user's surrounding area, in real-time, with the potential to convert there and then:
Amazon refer to this as VISUAL SEARCH and their new A9 search teams are hard at work on developing it. Google Labs are too, with their Google Glasses tech. Visual Search has been talked about before, but with faster phones and 4G speeds, it can finally be realised. And according to early
reviews, Nokia City Lens already works amazingly in places like London, New York and Mumbai, so will be developed by Nokia quite rapidly. Visual Search will eventually utilise a PPC business model at some point, which is where SMG Search potentially comes in. Nokia EPK - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMdNtVqYJIw – Dillan Gandhi More Details: http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/09/10/nokia-city-lens-comes-out-ofbeta/ http://betalabs.nokia.com/trials/nokia-city-lens-for-windows-phone